Sylvester Stallone Is Definitely Out On The Rambo TV Series

Recently, we learned Fox has a new project in the Rambo franchise in the works. If it moves forward, the story will be called Rambo: New Blood and it will follow Rambo and his son J.R. Obviously, this led to ripe speculation that Sylvestor Stallone might reprise his role as the iconic character, but now that doesn’t look to be happening. What’s worse, the actor doesn’t seem to be involved with the project, at all.

While Stallone not starring in New Blood comes as no surprise in the least—he wasn’t set to star the last time media companies tried to get the project off of the ground either—it does come as a surprise that he has wholly washed his hands of the project. Early reports indicated that Stallone was involved presumably in an executive producing capacity. Now Stallone’s team has made a statement to Deadline indicating even the producing credit that was being mentioned by the parent company is not correct.

Contrary to reports, Sylvester Stallone has opted not to participate in the planned Rambo television series in any way at all.

Presumably, all of the other information related to Rambo: New Blood still holds water. We knew before that Fox had ordered a script for the potential project. In addition, Jeb Stuart was signed on to write and executive produce the project at the time we first heard about the potential reboot. All of that still seems to be aboveboard. In addition, New Blood will still introduce J.R. as a new character in the franchise and Rambo himself will presumably still be around, just played by a separate actor who can still pull off a troubled Vietnam War veteran/permanent badass.

The TV series was always at odds with statements Stallone has made about gearing up and training for a fifth Rambo movie. Then again, the movie title Rambo: Last Blood was so similar that it almost seemed as if the movie and TV project could have been related, however casually. In addition, the last time we really heard new news about the movie was in December of last year, so it has seemed as if the movie project has been stalled in favor of other work on Stallone’s end. Starring in a network TV show always seemed like a long shot, but it’s confounding that Entertainment One and Millennium Films said Stallone would be involved on the creative end when he’s not. Obviously, it was a gamble that didn’t pay off. Luckily, there are plenty of other fish in the sea who could potentially play the character.

Stallone will executive produce The Expendables if it moves forward and Fox is also attached to that project. Due to Stallone's involvement, I'd say that one has a lot higher likelihood of moving forward to series than the Rambo stuff, but there’s still plenty of time between now and May when the networks announce their final decisions regarding new shows. We’ll keep you updated.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Sign up below to receive our weekly email with the best content about movies, news and television from the team at CinemaBlend